AMERICAN CAPTIVES: LENA BAKER & SANDRA BLAND Set for Encore Performance at United Solo

An encore performance of American Captives: Lena Baker & Sandra Bland, written and performed by Connie Winston and directed by Rhonda "Passion" Hansome, will be presented during the 10th anniversary season of the United Solo Theatre Festival in New York City on Sunday October 6, 2019 at 4pm. Influenced by Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow," the show focuses on the relationship of Black women and the U.S. criminal justice system during the 60 years between the deaths of the two women. Recommended for adults, the show will be staged on Theatre Row, 410 West 42nd Street, New York City and tickets ($45 plus a $2.25 Theatre Restoration Charge) are now on sale at the box office or online through Telecharge: (www.telecharge.com) / 212-239-6200. When placing your reservation, please provide the festival name: United Solo Theatre Festival and the time and date of the performance.

Originally presented in NYC in October 2018, this poignant visceral theatrical experience combines the two stories of Lena Baker and activist Sandra Bland. After a one-day trial in 1945, an all-white male jury deliberates for under an hour and sentences Lena Baker to death for killing her abusive lover. Three days after being pulled over by a Texas State Patrolman in 2015 for not using her turn signal, Sandra Bland was found dead in a Waller County jail cell. This unapologetic personal accounting bares new awareness of timeworn atrocities.

Connie Winston has performed at New York City venues such as La Mama, etc, Dixon Place, New Dramatists, the Ohio Theatre, Soho Rep, HERE, Brooklyn Academy Of Music and Lincoln Center. Winston's work focuses on the creation of 'docu-drama' performance pieces: My Name is Harriet Tubman (commissioned by PlaysforLiving), The Autobiography of Dorothy Dean (first presented by Dixon Place), and On Griffin Alley (workshopped with the Drama Department of Bennington College). She has directed productions of August Strindberg's, The Stronger, Trifles by Susan Glaspell, and No Good War by Tali Ariav, developed with the Playwrights' Workshop at the University of Iowa. She adapted Eudora Welty's short story A Worn Path for the stage, and has been published in the African American National Biography (Oxford University Press) Black Masks Magazine, and Nka Journal of Contemporary African Art. Connie received her MFA in dramaturgy from the University of Iowa, an MA in performing arts from Emerson College and a BA in theatre from SUNY/New Paltz. Connie is seen on re-runs of Law & Order and Conviction and in her recurring role as Judge Shirley Taylor.

Rhonda "Passion" Hansome has directed over thirty-five productions, including Saviour? (Dwyer Cultural Center), Another Man's Poison, Antigone Asata Shakur, T'was The Night Before Kwanzaa (Black Spectrum and Billie Holiday Theaters), and Real Black Men Don't Sit Cross-legged on the Floor (New Federal Theater, Best Ensemble AUDELCO Award.) At the National Black Theater Festival, Bermuda Festival and New Federal Theater, she directed Melba Moore's Sweet Songs of the Soul; and in the NY International Fringe Festival, she directed Damon & Debra and Black Martian. Other festivals include Voices from the Edge, NYU Festival of New Works, Chekov NOW, Potpourri, Estrogenius, and Going to the River. Hansome is a member of the Workshop Theater Company, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, Women's Project Directors Forum, SDC and is an AUDELCO Outstanding Pioneer Honoree.

Connect with American Captives: Lena Baker & Sandra Bland at: www.americancaptives.com or: americancaptives@gmail.com

UNITED SOLO THEATRE FESTIVAL is an annual international festival for solo performances held at the Theatre Row in the heart of the New York City theatre district on 42nd Street, currently in its 10th anniversary season. Fiona Shaw called United Solo "the mecca of the solo shows in the world." Over 120 participants from six continents will present their shows every day from September 19 until November 24, 2019. Through its mission, United Solo presents renowned artists as well as new talents, discovers original stories, connects artists with their audiences, exchanges diverse perspectives, fosters a dialogue for change, entertains, and now also educates through its professional training program led by distinguished artists and cultural icons. Artists and companies interested in being presented at The United Solo Festival in 2020 are now welcome to submit their applications online at www.unitedsolo.org starting September.

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